If you do a search for Matt McGee on Google, you not only get lots of my blogs and web sites … but you now also get photos!
Google has clearly recognized my devilishly handsome looks and decided that the world needs to see more of me, too, without having to click the “Images” button. I agree.
Seriously, I have no idea why a vanity search on my name is suddenly showing images. And if you ask one of the Google Images engineers — which I did — you’ll get the regular “we can’t share the secret sauce” reply.
And yes, I regularly do vanity searches like this.
I do a lot of reading online. A lot. Do you? If so, maybe you’re like me — you’re tired of trying to find the article in a sea of advertisements, graphics, and other distractions. There’s too many news sites with poor readability, y’know?
So let me suggest you download and use the Readability bookmarklet from Arc90. Just choose your settings (you can control text size, font, etc.) and then drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar and you’re all set. When you’re reading news online, just click the bookmarklet and you’ll instantly get a perfectly readable, ad-free version of the article. Like this:
Ron Paul makes the case that liberals supporting Obama’s position on Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan is like conversatives supporting Bush’s expansion of government spending.
“Sometimes we have to stand up for what is right and not be so narrow-minded in our partisanship.”
[Warning: Unusual amount of self-reflection and navel-gazing is about to follow. Feel free to click to the next blog in your feed reader.]
It’s been probably 20 years since I could say that I liked U2’s song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” The version with the choir from Rattle and Hum was way overplayed, and I basically became apathetic toward the song at that time and have stayed that way ever since. Before seeing any of the shows on U2’s current tour, I was talking with a friend named Donna and we both agreed that “I Still Haven’t Found…” is a song we’d just as soon not hear again, even though we both knew that U2 has been playing it at every show.
I’ve now seen three shows on this tour, and guess what song has brought me to tears at each one?
Yep. That one.
Now, it’s not at all unusual for me to cry at a U2 show. I can count on one hand the number of shows that didn’t bring me to tears. (Look, I’ve got almost 30 years of my life invested in this band and these songs. I’ve been loyal to them since 1983 and no other band has even come close to having the same meaning for me. This is the soundtrack of my life.)
It is unusual for me to get hit hard by this song, though. It seems to happen at the same point each time: When Bono sings the line “Yes, I’m still running”:
I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well, yes, I’m still running
You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
And my shame
All my shame
You know I believe it
For some reason, that line is packed with all kinds of emotion for this 41-year-old. I keep thinking about it, and I think that line says a lot about where I am right now: trying to be a great husband, trying to be a great dad, trying to be a great friend, trying to be a great Christian. Trying to set the right examples for my kids, my friends (the ones who need it), my sisters, relatives, peers, and so forth.
Realizing that your life is probably more than half over seems to refocus everything. I cherish the Good Things more than ever. I have less and less patience for pettiness, silliness, and stupidity.
Those lyrics remind me about how blessed I am. They remind me of the sacrifice of the cross. He did that for me. Me! (And you, too, by the way.) They remind me how great life is, especially the past four years. I get to work from home. I get to see my kids and my wife every day. I get to do what I love for a living. I get to run a U2 web site that reaches people on every populated continent and I get to do it with some of my best friends. Every so often I get to hear — face-to-face, fan to fan — how much that site means to other U2 fans, and it’s the most amazingly humbling thing imaginable. I got to hear that last weekend in Raleigh. I also got to hear those lyrics again, during one of the best U2 concerts I’ve ever been to — a night that was filled with unexpected blessings that no one deserves, certainly not me.
But those lyrics also remind me that, in the grand scheme of things, there’s still so much ahead. I’m going to send my son off to college in 7 years, and my daughter four years later. Then it’s me and Cari time again. We’ll work. Will we move? Will we travel? I hope. Will we be healthy? I really hope! The kids will get married. We’ll have grandkids, and then it all starts again … this time trying to be a great grandparent.
Yes, I’m still running. Probably always will be. You know I believe it.
Sometimes I feel like I lead two different lives. There’s my SEO/marketing life … and there’s my U2 life. The first life is the one that puts food on the table, and it’s a life I like. But this weekend reminded me that the second life is the one I love, and probably couldn’t live without.
For some reason, surrounding myself with fellow U2 fans that share the same deep passion and curiosity about this band renews me like nothing else. It happened in 2003 when @U2 co-presented an international U2 fan event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it happened again this weekend at the first U2 academic conference. (lots of photos here)
It helped that I also saw one of the best U2 concerts of my life Saturday night in Raleigh, right in the middle of the conference … and that @U2 hosted a super-fun post-conference event Sunday night in which I got to host a Q&A chat for nearly an hour with my favorite journalist, Neil McCormick.
But ultimately, it’s being around the U2 fans that wins the day for me. Sure, there are a few bad eggs in every group. But the vast majority of U2 fans I’ve met are special people. They make my U2 life all the better. If any of them are reading this, thank you.
I’ll probably have some more U2 stuff to write about in the near future. Lots of stuff going through my mind and heart at the moment.
Welcome to my home away from home on the Interwebz. When I'm not here, you might find me on Twitter (@mattmcgee), Flickr, StumbleUpon, or maybe even Yahoo! Answers. I'm a big sports and music fan. I watch LOST religiously. I love big, juicy cheeseburgers, and ice cream. With M&Ms. The ice cream that is, not the cheeseburgers.
